Hands on with 6 online music services

I took a shopping list of seven albums to the iTunes Music Store and compared my results with those from six large and small competitors. This chart shows the result. The red entries indicate the highest price for a particular album; green means the lowest price. The line above the eMusic entries means it's nearly impossible to compare prices for that service, which charges a monthly fee for a set number of downloads.

The bar at the top of this web page is Lala's Flash-based music player. With it, you can play any tune from your collection, including web songs and web albums that cost as little as a nickel per track.

The Music Mover utility doesn't just download; it also scans your music collection and matches it against Lala's licensed collection, uploading any tracks that are unmatched. As a result, you can have full access to your music library via a web browser even when you're away from home.

See those side-by-side Play and Add buttons to the left of each track and at the top of the album list? With a Rhapsody Unlimited or Rhapsody To Go subscription, you can play any tune or download it to your collection without having to pay any fee beyond your $13-15 monthly subscription charge.

This pop-up player allows you to listen to subscription tracks from a web browser, without installing the Rhapsody software. The web player works with Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X, and most Linux distros. As of today, it doesn't work with Windows 7.

Figuring out the cost of a purchase from the Zune Marketplace isn't easy. You have to purchase Microsoft points (400 points cost $5.00) and then translate point values to dollars. This album costs $17.50.

This list (under the Account Settings heading) shows every purchase I've made from the Zune Marketplace. Unlike iTunes, you can download a fresh copy of a previously purchased track; click the Download button or click Restore All to copy all your purchases to a new PC.

Apple has a virtual monopoly in the digital music download business, thanks to its iTunes Music Store. But there's plenty of competition. Here's a closer look at six services trying to deliver your favorite MP3s for less than Apple charges.

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by Ed Bott

I took a shopping list of seven albums to the iTunes Music Store and compared my results with those from six large and small competitors. This chart shows the result. The red entries indicate the highest price for a particular album; green means the lowest price. The line above the eMusic entries means it's nearly impossible to compare prices for that service, which charges a monthly fee for a set number of downloads.